


The Weasley Aftermath

by Roberly



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Curse-Breaking, Evil Author Day, Evil Author Day 2021, Gen, Goblins, Magic Theory, Post-Chamber of Secrets, Ritual Magic, discussion of child neglect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:15:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29472312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roberly/pseuds/Roberly
Summary: What happens when Bill's training with Gringotts gives him the skills to detect that something's wrong with Ginny when his family visits after Ginny's first year at Hogwarts?
Comments: 27
Kudos: 175





	The Weasley Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> This is a post for Evil Author Day 2021. I'm not done with the story but I like what I have so far and since I've been not great at writing this last year since pandemic lockdown messes with my ability to focus, I wanted to post something. 
> 
> "The Weasley Aftermath" came out of my wanting to know if Ginny got any kind of actual help after being possessed by Voldemort, because, you know, major trauma. I mean, in Philosopher's Stone, Quirrell dies after Voldemort's been possessing him for most of a year (yes, I know Harry's magical protection from his mum had a factor in that, but I doubt that was the only cause of Quirrell's death), so obviously, possession can have some very nasty side-effects, but Ginny's experience is just sort of brushed aside. Hot chocolate and a good rest do not fix shit like that, and medical neglect of children pisses me off, and this story was the result.

Bill took the handful of letters his housemate had left out on the table for him. He sorted through them quickly—one was from Charlie, one from an old school friend, two from the twins, and one from his mother. He took a long sip of his coffee and settled in to read after a long day tinkering with an intricate curse. 

He started with his mother’s letter first—she tended to fill it with fussing and he preferred to get through that first—and groaned after he read the first paragraphs. 

“What’s got your face like that?” his housemate Gamil asked. 

“My mother,” said Bill. 

Gamil snorted and topped up Bill’s coffee. “What’s she going on about now?” He had met her when Molly, Arthur, and Ginny had come out to visit a year and a half earlier, and had confided to Bill that he used to think his own mother was overprotective, but Molly Weasley outdid her. True, Gamil had liked Bill’s mum, but felt she was a bit over the top.

“They’re coming to visit.”

“Your parents?”

Bill shook his head. “All of them. Her letter says that Charlie hasn’t confirmed with them, but everyone else is on board. Dad won a contest with the Daily Prophet so they have some extra money for a holiday this year. They’ll be out here next month.”

“They can go on holiday and they pick Egypt in August? Are they crazy?”

He shrugged. “We’re wizards, Gamil. We have cooling charms.”

“That’s not the point,” said Gamil. “Even with cooling charms, the sun’s hot here. I’m glad we work at Gringotts and spend most of our time underground. At least there we don’t have to deal with it being 40 or higher.”

“They’ll probably play tourist most of the time in the wizarding sections,” said Bill. “My dad’s nuts about Muggles but he prefers to study their gadgets instead of actually spending time in the Muggle world.”

Gamil snorted and got up to start another pot of coffee. “You purebloods are so quaint.”

Bill laughed. “I’m not exactly helpless, am I?” he asked.

“You were when you got here and I got stuck with you,” Gamil retorted. “They aren’t staying here, are they?”

Bill glanced around their kitchen/living area. It was more than enough space for Bill, Gamil, and their other housemate, Tollak, but eight more teenagers and adults would stretch its limits just for an evening, much less a month. The house Gringotts had allotted to them was in the non-wizarding quarter of Cairo; they could do magic indoors but they couldn’t add wizarding space to the place. “Charlie might want to; we’ve room for him. But Mum’s asked me to find a place for them to stay for the month. I’ll go ask around the wizarding quarter tomorrow.”

The door opened and Tollak came in, carrying their evening meal. It had been his turn and he’d settled for one of the nearby food vendors who got a lot of business from the three of them. “What’s the news from your clan, Bill?” he asked, seeing the pile of letters. 

“They’re coming to visit,” said Gamil with glee. Tollak had moved to Egypt from Norway several months after the Weasleys’ last visit, and had only heard Gamil’s and Bill’s stories about his family.

“What, all of them?” said Tollak. He set the food down on the table. “This means we have to clean the dust out of the window frames, don’t we?”

“Molly will find something to clean, no matter what we do,” Gamil promised. 

Bill put his head down on the table and wished that firewhiskey was legal in Egypt.

*******************************

In the end, he had the luck to find an acquaintance who needed house-sitters for the time when the Weasley family would be in town, and mostly just wanted a damage deposit. Bill thought of the twins and told him that was an excellent suggestion and his parents would be thrilled. An exchange of letters from Charlie determined that he would stay at Bill’s place, and wouldn’t be arriving until nearly a week after the rest of the family arrived. The number of letters from his mother about their accommodations and everything else just made Bill’s head ache while Tollak and Gamil made fun of him.

He arranged time off work for portions of the visit, since he didn’t have enough leave to take the entire month, and went to meet his family at the Portkey station in the wizarding quarter. He was swamped with hugs from his parents immediately, and once he managed to detach himself to see his siblings, he was attacked by the twins. He was pretty sure they’d done something to him that he’d figure out later, but decided not to bother asking, instead pulling Percy in for a hug, then Ron, and then he saw Ginny for the first time in over a year.

She was deeply pale, far too thin, and jumpy. He hugged her, trying to not express his shock when she flinched at his touch. No one had written anything about her, other than that her marks for her first year had been fine. She looked like a ghost. The shadows beneath her eyes indicated that she hadn’t been sleeping well. And her aura...Bill had a natural talent for auras, useful in his work, and had developed the ability for mage sight with some training. Ginny’s aura was tattered, smudged all over with black magic, and what was worse, there were no signs of natural healing. It was as though the trauma she had suffered had occurred only moments ago. 

Bill blinked and focused his mage sight on her, seeing layers of an enchantment that appeared familiar, but that he couldn’t put his finger on. He had a feeling he knew it from work. He smiled at his little sister, trying to be reassuring, and looked at the rest of his family. Ron had traces of the same magic as Ginny, but his aura was normal. Everyone else seemed normal, although it looked like the twins had pranked Percy several times already that day. He sighed inwardly at that; Percy didn’t do well with pranks and the twins didn’t know when to stop with him.

His parents said nothing about Ginny, who, after flinching from Bill, had latched onto him, clinging to his hand like she was seven, not twelve. They were busy sorting out their luggage. Bill directed them to the house and handed out keys. Ginny let go once they were indoors, and he set about adding them into the ward scheme. He stringently reminded the twins about being careful and not breaking things, and helped them with room assignments. Ginny got her own room, while the twins would share one room and Ron and Percy the other. His mother was pleased with the master bedroom and its en suite. Since this was the wizarding quarter, there were no restrictions on tinkering with wizarding space. The house wasn’t enormous, but it would be more than enough for the Weasleys. 

Bill probed cautiously when he took his mother out to buy groceries for dinner. All she would say was that Ginny had had a difficult time being away from home for the first time. Then she got distracted while asking about the fruit available from the produce vendors.

Ginny went to bed early, and Bill brought it up at the kitchen table. His parents and Percy were there. Ron and the twins had found some interesting board games in the living room and were settled in there. Percy excused himself from the conversation as soon as Bill said, “So, Ginny looks a bit pale,” pleading the excuse of a letter from his girlfriend.

“All those months in Scotland,” said Molly, polishing the kitchen counter. “No sunshine, and just the Hogwarts’ kitchens providing food. It’s a wonder more of the children don’t come home so pale and thin. You boys always said my cooking was better than what the house elves up at Hogwarts do.”

Bill raised an eyebrow. He remembered the food at Hogwarts well. He thought it was more surprising that more kids didn’t roll away from the table at school, given how enthusiastic the elves were about feeding people. 

“Now, Bill, are you staying here tonight, or do you have to get home?” Arthur asked, changing the subject.

He got the message, and brought the topic up again the next day, when he was giving them a tour of the wizarding quarter. But then the twins disappeared, and that caused a minor upset, and he decided to ask Ron, while Molly was scolding the twins for scaring her. 

“Eh, it was a weird year,” said Ron. “Did you hear that they hired _Gilderoy Lockhart_ as our Defense teacher?”

Bill made a face. He’d met the man, briefly, several years ago, and had had to refrain from just punching him in the nose. “I take he didn’t do so well?”

“Nope,” said Ron. “Turns out he just memory-charmed people who did cool things and stole their stories. Then his spell backfired.” Ron brightened. “He’s in St. Mungo’s now.”

Bill was a little appalled by how cheerful Ron was about that. He knew his brother wasn’t the most empathetic person, but being that happy about Lockhart’s injury was excessive. “His spell backfired?”

Ron nodded. “He stole my wand and was going to memory-charm me and Harry since we found out, but I’d broken my wand at the beginning of the year and had to tape it together, and it was all wonky. So it backfired on him and wiped his memories instead.”

“I suppose that’s poetic justice,” said Bill. “Why didn’t Mum and Dad replace your wand? That’s sort of essential.”

“Mum said that it was my fault I broke it so I’d have to live with it,” Ron said. He shrugged. “It was Charlie’s old wand, anyway, so it’s not like it was a good fit. They got me a new one after Dad won the _Daily Prophet_ contest.”

Bill felt a little like banging his head against a wall. Yes, wands were expensive, but a bad wand match just made it harder to get through school with good grades in your practicals, which could damage your career prospects right out of school, and a damaged wand was just plain dangerous. Merlin, if he’d known about it, he would have paid for a new wand for Ron! His job paid well, and his parents refused to take money from him when he offered, so he had plenty in savings.

Then he realized that he’d been distracted from talking about Ginny again. He decided that it was time to go straight to the source, which would be impossible with everyone else around. 

It took Bill two more days to find an opportunity. He took Ginny out for proper Egyptian coffee at a favourite place not far from his home, just the two of them. Once they had been served with coffee and lokma, he cast a few discreet privacy spells around the alcove they were seated in and then asked Ginny what was wrong.

She burst into tears.

It took a while for Ginny to tell him what had happened, but once she started talking, the whole story just poured out of her. By the end, Bill wanted to set someone on fire. “Then what?” he asked. “Did you see a healer?”

Ginny looked away. “Madam Pomfrey took care of the cuts and bruises,” she mumbled. 

“For the dark magic residue,” Bill clarified, not really wanting to tell his baby sister that she had black magic clinging to her. The distinction between the two was fairly clear-cut, but since she had both dark magic and black magic hanging onto her (though dark magic wasn’t automatically bad, per se, it was more complicated than that; their family tended to view dark magic as bad and black magic as beyond the pale), he felt like he could generalize. “Did anyone treat you for that?” he asked.

Ginny shook her head, a few locks of hair falling around her face. “Professor Dumbledore asked me a few questions and gave me some hot chocolate, and he said I’d be fine.”

Bill gritted his teeth. “Did Mum and Dad take you to see a healer when you got home?”

She shook her head again. “They’re mad at me for using the diary and not telling anyone.” She picked up her coffee and set it down again without drinking. 

“So they’re punishing you by not taking you to a healer?”

Her eyes widened. “No! No, just, no one said anything about me needing a healer.”

Bill swore. “It’s standard care after possession, Ginny. Madam Pomfrey should know that, even if she’s only a mediwitch. If she doesn’t, Dumbledore definitely does. Merlin, Professor Snape could have looked over your magic, and he was certainly available.”

Ginny shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Dumbledore said something about no real harm done and I was lucky Harry was able to rescue me.”

“And that,” said Bill. He took a deep breath and sipped his coffee before he spoke. “Did Harry get a once-over from a healer or did Pomfrey just do a cursory exam?”

Ginny stared at her plate. “I don’t think they brought anyone in. Maybe his family took him after school was out?”

Bill resolved to have Ron write and ask. His brother had mentioned Potter living with Muggles who didn’t like him very much. Hadn’t the twins said something about that in their letters last summer? In the meantime, Ginny needed help.

“Okay, Gin, did you want to talk with Mum and Dad about a healer? There’s a goblin healer that my team sometimes works with who specializes in handling cases like yours, and I know she would be willing to help you.” 

Ginny bit into one of her lokma and chewed carefully, as though she was trying to keep from falling apart again. “I don’t know if they would like that idea. I tried to tell Mum I was still having nightmares and she sort of dismissed it.”

“You want to ask for forgiveness instead of permission?” said Bill.

“What do you mean?” Ginny asked, swallowing the pastry.

“I’ll take you to the healers at Gringotts when we can find a chance to get away from everyone else, and I’ll handle payment. You’re a relative so it might be covered under my employee benefits anyway. I’ll check. Does that work for you?”

Ginny nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I—I think I’d do just about anything to stop dreaming about Tom. It’s like he’s still whispering in my head whenever I fall asleep.”

Bill reached across the table to squeeze his sister’s hand. “I need you to tell me as much as you can remember, even if it’s hard. Skadi, the healer, will want the information when I talk with her.” He pulled out a notepad and a Muggle pen (which he had grown to prefer over quills), and starting writing as Ginny did her best to describe her experience.

*******************************

Bill bowed to Healer Skadi. “May your enemies perish in agony, and may their wealth and power be yours, as is your right,” he said.

Skadi showed all her teeth in a broad grin. “Curse-Breaker Weasley, may your gold pile high and your enemies fall before you. What can I do for you?”

“My only sister has suffered a possession that has left her aura torn and her magic besmirched by black and near-black dark magics. I’ve spoken with her and she wishes for healing, but she has not seen a healer since before this happened.”

“How old is your sister, Weasley?” Skadi asked.

“Twelve,” said Bill.

Skadi hissed. “And your parents have allowed a child to suffer so?”

Bill nodded. “I am disappointed with their actions but wish to see my sister healed before I call them to account, lest they remove her from my reach. I have spoken to Ginevra and written her account of her experiences for you. If you are unavailable, I would like your recommendations of who to take her to.”

The goblin scanned the pages of Bill’s notebook. “I have some suspicions. What did your sight tell you?”

“The residue is similar to what we found on several artifacts in the tombs we excavated eight months ago,” Bill said. “Those were handled primarily by the goblins on the team so I don’t have direct familiarity with the magic type.”

“It was more dangerous to you wizards than to us goblins,” said Skadi. “There was a reason you were not permitted to touch those artifacts. They had to be cleansed in an extensive ritual.”

Bill sighed. It just seemed to get worse. He handed an account of Ginny’s story to Skadi. “This is what happened during the school year while she was possessed. I have some...concerns about the safety of the students at Hogwarts.”

Skadi took a few minutes to read the pages. “You would be remiss if you were not worried. I will send word to the London branch and they will begin a discreet investigation.” She set aside the paper and made a notation on her calendar. “Bring your sister here tonight, after your family is asleep.”

“Thank you, Healer,” said Bill, relaxing internally. His years working at Gringotts had taught him to trust the goblins to do what they promised and to act with integrity. They were far more reliable than wizards, he thought.

*******************************

That night, Bill stayed late at the house, waiting for everyone to head off to bed. He said he’d finish his hot chocolate and head out when his mother asked if he wanted to stay over. The house quieted; even the twins were asleep. Then Bill tweaked the wards slightly so his parents wouldn’t be alerted when Ginny left the house, shook his sister awake, and slipped out of the house with her.

It wasn’t far to the bank. Bill led her to the after-hours entrance, and then to the ritual room that was off-limits to regular patrons. His parents didn’t do ritual magic, and would probably be deeply upset if they found out the particulars of the healing ritual that Skadi was going to perform, but Bill didn’t care. They’d failed to take his baby sister to a healer after she’d been possessed by Voldemort, of all wizards, and he wasn’t going to let their strict views of magic stop him from getting Ginny the best help he had access to.

He was asked to stand in the circle, since he was a blood relative, and that would boost the power of the healing ritual. So he focused on his role, trying not to let his worry for Ginny eclipse his abilities to concentrate. She looked so tiny, and the white robe Skadi had provided just emphasized how much weight she had lost. Skadi carefully helped Ginny lay down in the centre of the circle, and began to light the candles. 

Bill lost himself in the magic that swirled through the circle, the pure energy of the goblin magic that drove out the darkness that was destroying his sister. Skadi caught the remnants of the black magic in a focus stone, which would be fully cleansed later. Ginny had lapsed into unconsciousness shortly before they started to draw off the black magic. She didn’t wake until the circle was opened. 

One of Skadi’s assistants helped her to sit up and drink a potion to help stabilize her magic now that it was no longer being damaged by the residue. Skadi nudged Bill. “Go to your sister,” she said. “The memories will be overwhelming. She will need a mind healer.”

Bill knelt beside Ginny, who flung her arms around him and cried. As she sobbed, he could see portions of her aura slowly beginning to mend. “You’re going to be okay,” he murmured, stroking her hair.

*******************************

Ginny slipped back into the house and to bed, very late that night, and Bill went home. He shut the door, and leaned against it, with a sigh.

“You were out late,” said a familiar voice. Bill looked up to see Charlie sprawled on the sofa, mug of hot chocolate cupped in his rough, calloused hands.

“And you arrived early,” said Bill. He collapsed into a comfortable chair and stretched his legs out. “Merlin, it’s been an insane few days.”

Charlie quirked an eyebrow. “I’d ask if you were out on a date, but I can feel the magic radiating off you. What kind of magical ritual were you doing when Mum and Dad are in town? They might not notice, but you never know. And they’re crazy about ritual magic; I haven’t even dared tell Mum that it features at all in my job, let alone how frequently we do it.”

“Had to be done,” said Bill. “As soon as possible.” He yawned. “It’s a long story. You want it now or later?”

“Depends,” said Charlie. He smirked. “Is Mum going to lose it on you in the morning when you still light up a room?” 

Bill groaned. “Now it is.”

Charlie listened to Bill’s story, asked a few clarifying questions, and then closed his eyes for a moment. Bill knew his brother was holding in his temper. “Have they lost their marbles?” he asked quietly.

“They kept changing the subject whenever I brought it up,” said Bill. “It’s like they didn’t even notice. I tried with Ron, but all I got from him was something about Gilderoy Lockhart trying to wipe his and Harry’s memories. And that’s another thing—I’m almost positive Harry didn’t get proper treatment, either, and he’s going to need it. Skadi told me what the thing with Voldemort was—it’s very ancient black magic that’s designed to tie the soul to this plane of existence.”

“Immortality,” said Charlie, grimacing.

“Yeah,” said Bill. “Very popular with some of the ancient Egyptian black magic cults, and then it pops up occasionally with black magic users throughout history. It involves an unwilling sacrifice, voluntarily splitting the soul, disgusting stuff like that. But it doesn’t work very well, hence Voldemort possessing Ginny instead of just resurrecting himself.”

Charlie yawned, and wandered over to the kitchen. He rinsed out his mug and left it in the dish drainer. “Okay, sleep time, and I’ll rant about the incompetent staff at Hogwarts in the morning. I need to process, and I spent most of the day wrangling a Hebridean Black before Portkeying out here.”

“Sounds good to me,” said Bill. “I’ve got an extra bed set up in my room for you.”

They staggered off to bed. Bill fell asleep almost instantly, and did not dream.

*******************************

Bill dragged himself out of bed earlier than he would have liked, showered, and made coffee. Charlie surfaced while he was preparing breakfast. “You aren’t quite as shiny as you were last night,” he commented after drinking two cups of coffee.

“Good,” said Bill. He set a plate of ful medames and eggs in front of his brother. “Eat.”

Charlie took a bite. “I’d forgotten how fantastic this is,” he said. 

Bill sat down with his own plate. “I’ve gotten so used to the food here that it was a little weird when Mum made some more traditional English food for dinner the other day.”

“They’re visiting Egypt and she’s busy making food from home?” said Charlie. “Why?”

Bill shrugged. “They’re the tourists, not me. I get the food not being familiar, though. Those first couple months here were kind of rough.”

Charlie yawned and downed some more coffee. “Yeah, I remember feeling really out of place in Romania for a while and the food was so different than Hogwarts and Mum’s cooking. Then I discovered cornulețe and frigărui and realized that different didn’t equal bad.” He scooped some of the eggs up with a piece of flatbread. “So, do you think they’ll have noticed the residual ritual magic on Ginny?”

“No idea,” said Bill. “Given that they seemed to be ignoring the black magic hanging onto her, I kind of doubt it, but you never know. It was like being slapped in the face, and they were acting like they’d been spelled to ignore it.”

“Were they?”

Bill sighed. “It has occurred to me, but it’s not like Mum’s going to let me run a diagnostic of her aura. The disturbing thing about that is that all them except for Ginny skirt around or outright ignore the subject.”

“Some kind of compulsion, then,” said Charlie. “It’s not like our family is good at secrets, Bill. I’d guess that the dark magic on Ginny neutralized any compulsion laid on her. Funny how that happens.”

Bill’s smile was sardonic. “A good thing, too.”

Charlie finished his food and leaned back in his chair, coffee in hand. “Plan for today?”

“I’m not sure whether I should beard the lion or see if any of the boys will let me do aura scans on them. If I can dispell whatever’s keeping them from talking about what happened during school, I can tackle Mum and Dad with reinforcements.”

“You’ve got me, and I can do an aura scan. Maybe we should sit down with Percy, and you can show me what I’m looking for. Then one of us can take the twins and the other can deal with Ron.”

Bill thought about that for a moment while he ate the last of his eggs. “I like that idea. I tried to start a conversation with Ron a couple of times and he kept veering off onto different, equally concerning subjects. His glee at Lockhart’s injury worries me. The man was a criminal who deserved to go to prison for what he had done, but losing his entire self like that? No one should be subjected to that.”

“To be fair, no one should be subjected to Azkaban, either,” said Charlie. “I’ve had some interesting conversations about that since I left England. It’s inhumane. Also, as wizarding Britain is technically part of Great Britain and subject to her laws, we’re violating the Geneva Convention.”

Bill winced. “That is something for another day, though I’m honestly surprised the ICW hasn’t done anything about it.”

“Right, we’ll tackle writing to our representatives until after we’ve figured out why our parents are so eager to neglect our sister.”


End file.
